Show your ID card to buy knives in Beijing

Beijing, Jan 28 (IANS/RIA Novosti) People in Beijing supermarkets will now have to show their ID cards to buy knives, a media report said.

According to Chinese Fachi wanbao newspaper, the requirement to register all knives’ buyers has been initiated by the city’s public security agencies.

From now on a customer who wants to buy a knife or any other blade has to tell the supermarket’s special officer his or her name, ID card number, home address and purpose of knife use.

Supermarkets are prohibited to sell knives to teenagers and people with ‘unusual and abnormal’ behaviour. If such categories of citizens want to buy knives, supermarket managers must call the police.

The requirement has been already in force in city’s largest supermarket chains, while owners of small shops in the Chinese capital do not register the customers, the paper said.

The reason for tightening knives sale procedure is uncertain. Last time, a ban on the sale of knives was introduced in Beijing in October 2009 during the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.